The present invention relates to protective headgear of the type used in athletic events by participants and more particularly to protective adjustable headgear used in football.
Football is an aggressive contact sport and the need to protect football players from all kinds of injuries, especially head injuries, such as concussions, is paramount. In order to provide the optimum protection against head injuries, the helmet of a football player needs to fit each player properly.
As shown in FIGS. 1A-1C, conventional football helmets 1 (such as those sold by Riddell, Schutt, etc.,) comprise gas pads or gas bladders (a plurality 2 of which are shown most clearly in FIG. 1B) inside the helmet 1 that can be inflated via respective valves 3 by coupling a hose 4 via an inflation needle 5 (FIG. 1C) to the valves 3. These valves 3 are similar to the valves used in footballs that receive an inflation needle therein in order to inflate the football. As is also well-known, the proximal end of these inflation needles comprises a threaded portion for connection to a mating threaded fitting on the hose end.
Although there are a number of air bladder combinations that can be used (see for example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,226,801 (Alexander, et al.), which is incorporated by reference in its entirety and which discloses a football helmet having air pads or air bladders therein), a typical plurality of football air bladders comprises a front air bladder, a crown air bladder, an orbital air bladder, back/side air bladders, a left jaw air bladder and a right jaw air bladder. When these properly-inflated air bladders are used in combination with the helmet's chin strap, these components ensure that a snug fit around the player's head is achieved when the helmet is worn during play. For example, a player's helmet size could be a medium, large, extra-large, etc. By way of example only, for helmet manufacturer Riddell, a head circumference in “Varsity,” ranging from adolescents to young adults, bases its sizes of up to ⅜″ as a small, between 20⅜″ and 22″ as a medium, between 22″ and 23½″ as a large and 23½″ and larger considered extra-large with custom larger helmets also being available. For youth football, there are smaller dimensions that the helmet sizes are based off of.
However, these air bladders 2 are usually inflated when they are first distributed to the football player and it is then up to the player to decide whether to ever refill or even check the fill state of each bladder. Furthermore, when the helmet is first fitted to the player, it is simply done by “feel” of the player, i.e., once the helmet “feels comfortable” no more air is pumped into the various air bladders.
Such a scenario is potentially dangerous to the player because it is well-known that a player's helmet loses air after every play, series, quarter, game, practice, etc., not to also mention that other variables such as time, weather and altitude can also affect the fill level of each air bladder. Therefore, leaving it up to the football player to periodically check the “feel” of the helmet fit is not a reliable and safe way to ensure that player's helmet is always providing the optimum protection to the player.
It should be noted that the bladders are typically filled with air, although other kinds of gases can be used. As such, use of the word “air” or the phrase “air bladder” throughout this Specification is not meant to limit these bladders to only air but it is implied that any conventional and safe gas that can replace the use of “air” within the bladder is covered by the present invention.
Thus, there remains a need for a system and method that easily and frequently checks the air bladder levels in the player's helmet and automatically fills each air bladder to a specified pressure that provides the optimum protection of the helmet for each player.
All references cited herein are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.